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• The Session panel
• The host name section
• Loading and storing saved sessions
• "Close Window on Exit"

Section 3.1: The Session panel

The Session configuration panel contains the basic options you need to specify in order to open a session at all, and also allows you to save your settings to be reloaded later.

3.1.1 The host name section

The top box on the Session panel, labelled "Specify your connection by host name", contains the details that need to be filled in before PuTTY can open a session at all.

• The Host Name box is where you type the name, or the IP address, of the server you want to connect to.
• The Protocol radio buttons let you choose what type of connection you want to make: a raw connection, a Telnet connection, an rlogin connection or an SSH connection. (See section 1.2 for a summary of the differences between SSH, Telnet and rlogin.)
• The Port box lets you specify which port number on the server to connect to. If you select Telnet, Rlogin, or SSH, this box will be filled in automatically to the usual value, and you will only need to change it if you have an unusual server. If you select Raw mode, you will almost certainly need to fill in the Port box.

3.1.2 Loading and storing saved sessions

The next part of the Session configuration panel allows you to save your preferred PuTTY options so they will appear automatically the next time you start PuTTY. It also allows you to create saved sessions, which contain a full set of configuration options plus a host name and protocol. A saved session contains all the information PuTTY needs to start exactly the session you want.

• To save your default settings: first set up the settings the way you want them saved. Then come back to the Session panel. Select the "Default Settings" entry in the saved sessions list, with a single click. Then press the Save button.
• To save a session: first go through the rest of the configuration box setting up all the options you want. Then come back to the Session panel. Enter a name for the saved session in the Saved Sessions input box. (The server name is often a good choice for a saved session name.) Then press the Save button. Your saved session name should now appear in the list box.
• To reload a saved session: single-click to select the session name in the list box, and then press the Load button. Your saved settings should all appear in the configuration panel.
• To modify a saved session: first load it as described above. Then make the changes you want. Come back to the Session panel, single-click to select the session name in the list box, and press the Save button. The new settings will be saved over the top of the old ones.
• To start a saved session immediately: double-click on the session name in the list box.
• To delete a saved session: single-click to select the session name in the list box, and then press the Delete button.

Each saved session is independent of the Default Settings configuration. If you change your preferences and update Default Settings, you must also update every saved session separately.

3.1.3 "Close Window on Exit"

Finally in the Session panel, there is an option labelled "Close Window on Exit". This controls whether the PuTTY session window disappears as soon as the session inside it terminates. If you are likely to want to copy and paste text out of the session after it has terminated, you should arrange this option to be off.

"Close Window On Exit" has three settings. "Always" means always close the window on exit; "Never" means never close on exit (always leave the window open). The third setting, and the default one, is "Only on clean exit". In this mode, a session which terminates normally will cause its window to close, but one which is aborted unexpectedly by network trouble or a confusing message from the server will leave the window up.

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